


broken bones, broken hearts

by zinabug



Series: Lily of-many-names [4]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, I'm just out here making y'all sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23059411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinabug/pseuds/zinabug
Summary: Lily did not want to be a mechanism, at least until she had to be.
Series: Lily of-many-names [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1962349
Comments: 12
Kudos: 58
Collections: Lilly-of-Many-Names Tales





	1. death

It was such a simple job. 

_ No  _

There wasn’t anything they couldn’t do. They were immortal, after all.

_ She wasn’t though _

The catwalk was a safe place for the young woman and her long range laser rifle.

_ Unless it wasn’t  _

It was supposed to be safe for her.

Jonny could see every moment in his head so vividly, repeating it over and over. 

_ It's not possible it can’t be she can’t be  _

She had been so graceful, so fragile in the fall and fire. 

Raphealla hadn’t been fast enough, her wings desperately pushing against the hot air as Jonny’s anguished scream echoed around the room. He was fighting viciously, fueled by his love and pain. 

_ Just slightly too slow _

Everything had seemed silent as the sharp crack echoed through the room, just as Jonny reached her side, Just as Raphealla landed, arms empty. 

_ It was okay that Tim and Ivy and Brain were dead they would get better sHE HAD TO GET BETTER IT WAS GOING TO BE OKAY _

Every time he closed his eyes he saw her falling. 

Her head was in his lap, like she always had done when she was little. Now she was taller than him, and she had tears in her eyes as she struggled to breathe, holding onto his hand so tight he could almost feel his fingers breaking. 

_ Breaking, like her spine had.  _

“I’m scared.” she whispered, and Jonny squeezed his eyes shut only to relive her falling once again. 

Marius came sprinting up to them, gasping with two bullet holes in his chest quickly closing. 

“No no no NO NO!” he fell to his knees, lightly touching her shoulder. 

“Marius…” Lily smiled at him. 

Jonny looked up at Maruis, gasping through tears. He almost wished his heart had been re-built so he wouldn’t have to feel. Almost. 

“She will either die, or be significantly paralyzed.” Marius said very quietly. “I can’t do anything, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Lily.”

_ He wasn’t going to say goodbye to her, not to his daughter. She had taught him how to love again.  _

“NO!” he yelled, sobbed really, “THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING!” 

“You could make her a mechanism.” Raphealla had her wings wrapped around herself like a blanket, trying to hide her own tears. 

Lily’s eyes were almost closed, her breath rattling and her hands cold. Hardly responding as Jonny stroked her hair. 

“Lily…” he said “we can save you. Lily, please speak to me.”

Every blink was getting longer, and jonny realized that he was breathing along with her. If he had been mortal he would be gasping for air. 

“Jonny?” she was whispering, hardly able to speak. “I think I want to be a mechanism now.” 

“Anything for you. Anything.” 

Lily reached up and placed one trembling, stiff hand over his chest, feeling the soft  _ tick tick tick  _ of his mechanical heart, the way she had when she had nightmares as a child. She closed her eyes again, smiling faintly. 

“It’s going to be okay then.” she whispered. 

“It has to be.” Jonny said, pressing his hand over her own. 

_ Tick. Tick. Tick.  _


	2. DING!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily awakens. chaos ensues (again)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I would make it better (I think)  
> thanks to the Mechanisms group chat on tumblr of the creation of Lily and this idea! special thanks to Starstuff13, OddmentsandTweaks, and looktothestars!!

Jonny didn’t sleep and hardly spoke for the whole of the month where he sat, silent, next to the life pod where Lily rested. A month, of course, is nothing to him, immortal. 

For everyone else, it was a month of quiet, bracing themselves for Lily’s loss of humanity as the gears and rods that now made up her spine made her immortal, unkillable, eternal. 

Her eyes were closed, and she slept while her battered body healed. 

The ship was silent except for occasional explosions, yelling and gunfire. 

Without Jonny, they tended not to go on missions. The Toy Soldier had been standing perfectly still in a storage unit for at least two weeks. Nastya was living in the air ducts, as far as the rest of the crew could tell. Tim was entertaining himself by finding new ways to blow things up. Marius traded between joining Jonny in his vigil and vanishing into the ship somewhere. Ivy was lurking in her quarters reading, but she did that anyway. Ashes kept trying to cook to make up for the empty kitchen Lily had left behind, but only caused the halls of the ship near the to kitchen smell like smoke. Brian spent a lot of time avoiding the rest of the crew, doing his own quiet rituals of grief and sometimes fighting Tim. Raphealla was closeted in her lab more then normal. 

Jonny just sat there. Nastya, hidden in the air ducts, sometimes caught him talking to her, telling stories and singing as if she could hear and waiting for the time when the vital signals listed on the side of the life pod would stabilize.

He called her his Littlest Lemon when she was still a small child dressed in one of Tim’s shirts or Raphealla’s dresses, badly hemmed, and he carried her around telling tales of blood and fire when she couldn’t sleep. she was still his littlest lemon now, even though she was taller then him. 

She had grown up, as children tend to do, into a sharp young woman who could almost rival Jonny in target practice and was the best cook anyone on the Aurora had ever seen. 

Jonny remembered while he sat. He remembered running through the corridors of the ship with Lily on his shoulders, the two of them singing hellfire at the top of their lungs. He remembered when Lily adopted one of the octokittens that were all over the ship, nearly eight years ago now, and named it Grace. He remembered smiles and songs and stories. 

Lily opened her eyes again one month later. 

Everyone was piled around the life pod except Nastya, who was still in the air ducts somewhere, and the Toy Soldier, who was still in it’s storage unit of choice. Most of them were asleep, tired out by their sadness even though they didn’t need the rest. This was the first time everyone had been in there without Jonny shooting someone. 

Suddenly, out of the silence came a loud  _ DING! _

Jonny sat bolt upright as a startled Nastya came toppling out of the vent in the ceiling. Out of instinct, he raised his six-shooter and fired twice, hitting Nastya in the chest as she toppled on top of Brian, dead for the time being. 

Marius sat up from where he was flopped on the floor, where he had been using an empty milk carton labeled “whiskey” as a pillow. 

“What the fuck, Jonny?” Ashes said, pushing their hat up from where it had gotten tipped over their eyes. 

“LILY!” Jonny started pushing buttons on the life pod, trying to get it open. The top hissed open and her eyes opened too see everyone but Nastya and Brian hovering over her, as Nastya was still dead and had hit Brian pretty hard. 

She smiled. “Shootin?” 

Tim burst into tears. 

Jonny reached out his gun hand and pointed it at Tim while he smiled down at Lily. 

“I told you it would be okay.” he said, before pulling the trigger on Tim to make him shut up. He missed, and caught Marius in the head as he bent down to check Lily’s vital signs. 

“I got you something.” Ashes said, holding up a badly burned, at least two week old muffin that had been under their hat. 

Lily smiled at them. “Like the ones we made when I was little.” 

Tim, still sobbing, ducked under another gunshot. From the floor, Nastya sat up and flipped the bird at Jonny. 

“Can you help me sit up?” Lily asked. “I can feel my legs again… but it still hurts, and I feel so heavy.”

Jonny set his gun down and him and Ashes helped her up into a sitting position.

Raphealla was crying too. “I tried to save you so hard.” she said very quietly. “I tried.” 

Lily smiled and stiffly reached out a hand for hers. “It’s okay. It’ll stop hurting soon and then I can have proper fun with you.” 

Tim, still sobbing on the floor, said “I can make you a battleaxe now.” 

“How about no.” Nastya suggested. She pulled herself up, examining the blood on her shirt before embracing Lily. Ashes, Jonny, Tim and the rest (but not Maruis because he was still dead) followed, everyone hugging a laughing Lily until she pushed them away from the pain. 

“Are you okay?” Jonny asked, probably the second time in his life he had asked that and the second time he had asked it to Lily. 

“It hurts more than I expected. Did you hurt too?”

“I don’t remember.” He said, frowning. “Marius might.” 

“Well, he’s the doctor. Marius, do tell me why this hurts.” 

Marius got up from the floor where he had been dead a minute ago. “It may take longer for your body to fully adjust to the mechanism, or you the fact that you were in a life pod for a month between mortal and immortal.”

“I was in there for a MONTH?” Lily tried to get up, but flinched in pain and settled back down. 

“That’s not that long for you anymore.” Ivy said quietly. 

“THAT'S STILL A FUCKING LONG TIME, IVY.” Lily crossed her arms. “Where’s the Toy Soldier? Where’s Grace? What have you been doing this whole time?” 

* * *

Lily was sitting on Jonny’s jap again, like when she was little, even though she was taller than him. Everyone else was gathered around her, absently eating Ashes’s horrible muffins, singing and telling tales. 

Jonny and Lily sang “the ballad of lil’ lemon” together. she was still their littlest lemon, named in honor of the hero. Lily’s coat was a vibrant blue instead of black, and had an enormous compound bow she had built with Tim instead of a six shooter, but they were both brave and strong and good shots. 

Later into the evening Tim and Brian were asleep on each other’s shoulders, the Toy Soldier had re-appeared and was keeping the beat on its tamborine for a very drunk Marius as he vaguely sang what had to be a combination of at least three other songs. Ivy was gone, back to her books, and Raphealla was trying to sing along with Marius. Ashes was sitting next to Lily, and telling her about their cooking adventures while she sleepily rested her head on Jonny’s chest. 

Jonny was still quietly humming, the most content he thought he had ever been, feeling Lily’s ear against his chest. 

_ Tick. tick.  _

Everyone was at peace, in the way the mechanisms like to be at peace - drunkenness and singing and Lily there with them all. 


End file.
